


Choose Your Path Wisely

by emma98



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Choose Your Own Adventure, F/M, Steve has a hard decision to make, Time Travel, brief mentions of character deaths, impossible decisions before lunch, infinity stone tomfoolery leading to existential crisises, no happy ending within, no seriously if you want to write an ending you can do it and I'd love to read them all, you pick the ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-03
Updated: 2017-12-03
Packaged: 2019-02-10 03:10:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12902667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emma98/pseuds/emma98
Summary: Thanos needs the Soul Stone that is being kept in Wakanda, and Steve and the rest of Earth's Mightiest Heroes are taking one last stand to stop the giant purple thumb villain from getting the stone.When Thor shows up with a way to end it all, Thanos offers Steve a choice.To start all over again...





	Choose Your Path Wisely

**Author's Note:**

> So, the other day I had a plot bunny and it was wicked and it was this.
> 
> I'm sorry.

 

"Captain America.  Righteous.  Stalwart.  Pure of heart."

 

Steve coughed up blood as he tried his best to get off his back, to get back to his feet, to keep on fighting.  So many were dead on the fields of Wakanda.  His friends.  He looked over and saw Tony and Sam and Natasha, the life gone from them as they added to the pile of dead heroes at the feet of Thanos.

 

"You really don't know how to give up, the Skull was right about you," Thanos intoned.  "The soul stone, Captain.  Tell me where it is."

 

"Never," Steve whispered.  The soul stone was safe.  It would never be added to the five other stones on the gauntlet that the impossible being walking towards Steve wore on his large, granite like fist.

 

Thanos could kill them all.  But his quest to conquer and destroy Earth would be in vain if he didn’t obtain the Soul Stone.  If the Guardians could get it off of Earth in time it would be alright.  The Universe would survive if Thanos didn't have it.  Earth, the people left over, would find a way to fight back.  New heroes would rise to take the Avengers' place and Thanos would be stopped.

 

"You know where it is," Thanos accused.  He put his foot on Steve's chest and pressed down, causing the injury he had sustained, namely an alien spear straight through his midsection, to burst into white hot pain.  Thanos watched with clinical disinterest as Steve screamed out automatically, his hands going to Thanos' boot and trying to pry it off of him, nearly managing it in his half dead state.

 

A bullet came from far away, but it did nothing since Thanos merely had to raise his hand and stop it from trying to pierce his nearly impenetrable skin.  

 

"That's not going to work at all," Thanos laughed and brought his hand closer to himself, and suddenly Bucky was out of the shadows, injured and bloody and on his knees next to Thanos and Steve.  "Tell me where the soul stone is or I kill him."

 

Steve looked over at Bucky and shook his head.  They didn't know who Thanos was talking to, really.  The threat could have been aimed at either of them.  But both of the men knew what was at stake and they both shook their head.

 

"Fuck off," Bucky grumbled, clearly irritated.

 

"I can feel the stone, it's close, beneath the ground," Thanos airly revealed.  "You'll be dead and whatever you're protecting will follow you in moments.  Bring it to me and I'll ease your pain."

 

They just needed time.  Thor had a weapon.  It wasn't Mjolnir.  But it might even be better.  They just needed to wait out the clock and keep the stone that had been tied around the Queen of Wakanda's neck safe until then.  

 

Steve thought of Darcy.  How two days ago, they'd shared breakfast together before he was called out for the covert mission that would lead him to London and one of Thanos' Black Order.  He could feel his ribs cracking as Thanos continued to step on him and saw Bucky fighting back from screaming in his own pain as some unseen power tortured him from the gauntlet.

 

If he was going to die here, he would try to think of Darcy.  Sweet, funny, brilliant Darcy who he had spent the last two years with in near hiding.  He tried to will her face into his line of sight, the way she would do anything to get him to laugh, no matter how ridiculous.  Homemade dinner rolls and roasted chicken on Sundays nights.  Reading by the fire with Darcy curled against him.  The soft feel of her skin.  The beautiful sounds she made when he was inside of her.  His Darcy's smile.

 

"Ah---some on this planet are not so noble as you," Thanos laughed, easing off of Steve and dropping a breathless Bucky to the ground.  He approached Thaddeus Ross, who had his own armed forces behind him, and one Queen of Wakanda in chains.

 

"Ross, don't!" Steve's scream was full of gravel and piss and vinegar.

 

Despite his pain, Bucky scrambled around him to grab some kind of weapon, to stop what was happening.  

 

"You will give me protection," Ross demanded of Thanos.

 

Thanos' laughed as he seized the stone around the Queen's neck and added it to his gauntlet.  The surge of power that came from it was palpable, shaking the ground ominously.  A burst of light and Ross and all of his men were disintegrating piece by piece in the most painful way possible.  

 

Bucky helped Steve to sitting at least, staring at the impossibly powerful madman across the field of broken and dead heroes.  The Queen of Wakanda wavered on her feet as the men holding her were torn to miniscule shreds.  She stared at Thanos with burning menace before literally spitting at him in defiance.

 

"That's a helluva woman," Bucky whispered.

 

Thanos raised his fist, ready to strike, when several things happened simultaneously.  

 

Thor fell from the sky and landed nearly one hundred yards from Thanos, the Asgardian's hands were a large ax shaped weapon and in another what looked like Mjolnir, reforged.  

 

The Black Panther leapt from impossibly far away, having come from nowhere.  Steve looked around in desperation, seeing that a portal had opened to redeliver T'Challa from wherever Thanos had banished him to earlier, and the portal was also delivering reinforcements.  Steve recognized the look of the portal.  It was Jane Foster's work.  Which only meant one thing.

 

"Jesus, Steve," Darcy whispered, falling to her knees next to him.  She held up handheld cradle, developed by Helen Cho, who was administering her own cradle on Bucky's largest injuries before rushing off to find other people that could still be saved.  "You get yourself into a literal fuckton of trouble, babe."

 

"You shouldn't have come," Steve's voice trembled as soft hands wiped at his beard covered jaw.  "You shouldn't have come."

 

"It's alright, Thor has it figured out, you need to be able to lift a hammer though," Darcy said confidentially.  She smiled and wiggled her eyebrows at the cradle that was quickly mending Steve's broken skin.  "That's why I'm here."

 

"Sweetheart," Steve whispered.

 

"I know you can do it," Darcy promised before placing a kiss on his dirty forehead and pulling away.  "I love you."

 

He got to his own two feet and turned to see Bucky standing there, looking stronger than he had moments before.  Steve nodded at him and gave a look to Darcy and Bucky swallowed before giving a slight nod in return.  The unspoken request to his oldest friend was to protect her, to keep her as safe as he could.  And Bucky would do it.  Steve knew it.

 

He turned away from his girl and his best friend and began walking towards Thanos.  Thor began his own journey from the other side, holding the powerful new weapon at his side and lifting the newly forged Mjolnir and tossing it effortlessly at Steve.  The Black Panther was providing enough of a distraction along with something that Loki, of all people was managing to do off to the side that the hammer sailed over Thanos' head without him noticing.

 

Steve felt the power surge through him as he caught the handle.  He didn't have to be an expert tactician to know what Thor was aiming to do.  The scythe like weapon he carried would be used from below Thanos' wrist and Steve and the hammer would come from above and together they would tear the powered gauntlet and Thanos' whole hand off of his body.

 

He began to run, knowing he would have to get some air beneath his feet in order to manage it.  

 

He could feel his body faltering halfway to the Mad Titan who was turning his head just barely to glimpse at Steve, the glittering of the infinity gems ominous in the cornflower blue twilight of Wakanda.

 

Steve blinked and when he opened his eyes, he was standing in Howard Stark's workshop, his perspective much smaller than it had been a moment ago.

 

"Steve," Howie waved at him as he tinkered with something on the table.  "Good to see you, old boy.  It's been a while."

 

* * *

 

"What's happening?" Darcy demanded.  It had been a whisper, but it made the hair on the back of Bucky's neck stand on end.

 

Steve was suspended midair, as well as Thor.  

 

"They are making decisions," Thanos announced.  "Do they really want to try to end this only to fail? Or are they willing to abandon all they now deem important for their own happiness?"

 

"Fuck off," Darcy and Bucky said in nearly perfect unison.

 

"Careful, careful," Thanos advised with acerbic humor.  "You don't want to see this, do you?"

 

They weren't given a choice.  Bucky and Darcy fell to the ground in heaps of unconsciousness and when they opened their eyes, they were in darkness, a scene playing out in front of them like it was  holographic screen.  Steve was standing in a workshop with Howard Stark, looking just as he had in 1940.

 

"Gosh, little Steve's a cutie," Darcy murmured.

 

Bucky had no such tender reaction. He was staring at the spectre of Howard as he spoke to a confused Steve.  This wasn't a memory.  Howard had never met Steve before he became Captain America.  Howard was a ghost.  And ghosts were never good.

  
  
  


* * *

 

"This is a trick," Steve insisted.  

 

"Yeah, probably," Howard nodded in casual agreement, looking more like Tony than he had ever done.  "You want to know what I'm working on?"

 

He gestured to the desk full of gadgetry and plans written on scraps of paper.  Steve cautiously walked towards him to see what it was, but couldn't make out the notes and definitely didn't know what was happening with the bits of machinery.

 

"Vibranium locator," Howard announced.  He pointed to a matchbook with smudged words on it.  "And if I can read this right, it'll work.  We'll have found you less than a week after you went into the ice."

 

Steve swallowed nervously.

 

"You remember a week after the ice, don't you?  You were still conscious, heartbeat had slowed to about three beats per minute, body temperature was still running high at almost fifty degrees fahrenheit," Howard shook his head in amazement.  "Damned Erskine and his damned miracle serum."

 

Howard gave Steve a wink.  Howard's winks were always especially expressive.  And this one definitely said, ' _ wish I hadn't died over Erskine's damned miracle serum _ '.

 

"What do you think that is, an M or an N?" Howard asked as he pointed to a note scribbled on a matchbook.

 

"What's the trick, Thanos?" Steve demanded.

  
  


"No trick," Howie laughed.  "Giving you an honest shot, kid.  You go back to 1945.  You try to give it another go."

 

Steve thought about what that meant.  The enormity of it.  He took a step back in visceral reaction.  If he went back to 1945, was rescued from the ice at the end of the War...

 

He could save Bucky.  He could save Howard.  He could prepare the entire world for every disaster he had lived through since waking up from the ice, including Thanos.

 

... _ Peggy _ .

 

"Yeah, that's a pretty good incentive," Howard whispered.  "Want to see what that would feel like?"

 

"No---" Steve whispered.

* * *

 

 

Bucky swallowed nervously and looked to Darcy, whose hand had gone up to her mouth as soon as Howard had said the words ' _ vibranium locator _ '.  She had tears welling out of the corners of her eyes.  He went to put his hand on her shoulder and she shook him off with a violent jerk.

 

"I don't want to be here."

 

She was resolute.  And angry as all get out.  Bucky couldn't help but be a little put out by her attitude.

 

"Doll, have some faith in him, he knows this is a trick," Bucky advised.

 

"It's not a trick," Darcy said thickly.  "I don't want to be here.  Can we get out of here?  Please?"

 

Bucky felt his brows knitting together in confusion.  It was a trick.  Thanos had told them as much.  And he knew his best friend better than he knew anything.  Steve was a good man, and he would always choose what was right.

 

“Darcy, I haven’t known you as long as you’ve known Steve,” Bucky admitted.  “But I know that you love him.  You know he’ll do the right thing.”

 

Darcy nodded and her voice was jagged like broken glass, “I know how good he is.  And he is going to do the right thing.  And I don’t want to watch him decide to do it.  I  _ can’t _ .”

 

Bucky looked around the dimly lit space they were standing in, knowing there was no viable escape.  The scene in front of them changed, and suddenly Steve was STEVE again, big, but this time in period appropriate clothing as he exited a car on a Brooklyn street and walked slowly towards one of the fancy, beautiful brownstone houses.

 

He took off his hat and held it under his arm, looking up at the brownstone with conflict.  He didn't have to move.  He didn't have to go up and knock.  The door to the house opened and an angel in wool and sensible pumps and red lipstick came running down the front stoop and launched herself into Steve.  His arms came up and embraced the crying woman.

 

"I knew it, I knew you weren't dead," she cried into his shirtfront.  "You're too damned stubborn to die."

 

"Peg," Steve whispered, the feel of his old lover in his arms was like healing a crack that had been made in his heart.  The crack had been growing smaller with time, filled with the rose-colored memories and the stories the older version of Peggy had told him.  Since she had passed on in his time, it had seemed to be as healed as it was ever going to get.    "Oh Peggy."

  
  


She stood back and looked up at him, beaming as she wiped at the tears on her cheeks.  She stood on the tops of her toes and placed a sweet, aching kiss on his lips that had Steve’s heart soaring even as it threatened to break in two.  She pulled away and gave him a kiss,  "Don’t think you won’t be punished for standing me up last week at the club.  But first things first, work.  Come on then, let's get to planning.  Howie said that you've been saying strange things...like you know the future."

 

Steve nodded.  He did know the future.  He knew everything.  At this point, Bucky was in the hands of the Russians, according the Hydra medical records he had practically memorized after the fall of SHIELD, in June of 1945, they would be dosing Bucky with drugs to keep him unconscious while they attempted to come up with the best way to utilize the super serum enhanced man.  And then Zola would return after being released and Bucky's torture would begin before the end of the summer.

 

"Steven, get a move on, we need to start planning, my love," Peggy urged.

 

Steve held up a hand, asking wordlessly for a moment to pull himself together.  He turned on his heels and walked to the end of the block, picking up the smaller man that had been watching covertly.  He gripped Howard Stark by the coat and stared down at him.

 

"This is a trick," Steve insisted.

 

"Not a trick, pal," Howard smiled.  "I do enjoy a challenge.  I'll give you another chance, and it'll still wind up the same, with me crushing every soul on Earth beneath my fist.  You go and save your best friend and live your life with your true love.  And when it comes time to meet again face to face, it will always end the same.  You cannot win.  Drop the hammer."

 

"Steve?" Peggy called out.

 

His true love.  Peggy was his first love.  And his love for her was true.  

 

But  _ Darcy _ .

 

Darcy was the one who pulled him out of the dark he had fallen into.  She was there, always there, to bring him back.  He loved Darcy.  He had never even said it to her, unwilling to have it be the last words he had spoken to her on that battlefield, even though she had said them to him.  But he did love her.  He was in love with her.   

 

Steve let go of Howard's jacket and stared off into the distance, wondering what it would mean.  He would be able to save Bucky.  He would be able to save so many lives with the knowledge he carried.  Was the happiness of two people worth that?

 

"Steve?" Peggy called again, more worried.

 

Howard was vanishing before his eyes and he knew, he knew he had to make a choice.  Go back to the future and attempt to finish this, or try to do it all again.  One last time.  He could find fulfillment and happiness here, and he was sure that Darcy would be able to as well, to find someone less damaged, less dangerous, to find someone normal when the future had been made safe and secure.

  
  


Steve turned to look at Peggy once more.  Young and beautiful and full of love and care for him.  

 

He had to make the choice...

 

* * *

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I would like to invite anyone and everyone and all ships and all people in Darcyland to finish this story for me.
> 
> seriously, I would love to read what people select. Does Steve stay with Peggy and try to live his life again? Does Steve decide to go back to the battle and try to work with Thor to chop off his hand? Also, Thanos is offering a similar offer to Thor, what does THAT look like?!?
> 
> I have ideas. They are bad wicked ones that will make me cry and I'd be happy to discuss it with you below.
> 
> THANKS FOR READING THIS NUGGET OF AWFUL!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Choose Your Path Wisely -- The Heartbreaking Path](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12914472) by [phoenix_173](https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenix_173/pseuds/phoenix_173)




End file.
